CURSUS PUBLICUS
CURSUS PUBLICUS
Origin of Cursus Publicus.--The Persian empire under Darius,
son of Hystaspes, affords the earliest instance of a national postal
service. Mention is indeed made (
Liberat. Brev. 23) of a
class called
Symmaci as existing in the most ancient times
among the Egyptians for the conveyance of letters by land, but we have no
grounds for thinking that a postal system was established in Egypt as a
branch of the administration. In the Persian dominions, however, as we learn
from Herodotus (
3.28;
6.105;
8.98), horsemen stationed at
intervals and relieving one another conveyed the imperial will in all
directions from Susa, Ecbatana, or Babylon. The service was called
ἀγγαρήϊον, and the couriers,
ἄγγαροι. Messages of lesser urgency were
carried by
ἡμεροδρόμοι. In Greece there
are no evidences of any such service, at least upon a similar scale, for the
hemerodromi mentioned by Corn. Nepos (
Milt. 4.3) can scarcely have
been a permanent institution. This was probably due to the geographical
smallness of Greece, still more however to the utter absence of political
unity among the Greeks, and the want of facilities for land traffic, in
contrast with the easy communications by sea. But the vast extent of the
Roman dominions, and the centralisation of imperial functions in a single
hand, again constituted the conditions of a postal service, which
accordingly arose and became a most important instrument of state
administration. The practical wisdom of the Romans had from the beginning of
their conquests taught them to make roads throughout the territories which
they subdued, whence resulted a system of highways connecting the remotest
parts of the empire with Rome. These not only facilitated the marching of
troops, but served the general purposes of transport and the conveyance of
intelligence, forming, as they did, the material
condicio
sine qua non of the future
cursus
publicus. Within the last century of the republic, also, certain
practices had already been established, by which the development of the
postal service was largely conditioned. We proceed to give some account of
these.
Under the republic, after the conquest of Italy, government officials
despatched from Rome on public business were empowered to impose arbitrary
requisitions on the subject Italians (
dedititii) to
supply them with necessaries for travelling. Among the Italian allies such
functionaries usually obtained food, lodging, and means of transport from
their guest-friends or from the principal personages in the friendly states
which they visited. But when the Roman dominions included extra-Italian
provinces, the fine distinction made in Italy between subjects and allies
(
socii) was .in the provinces neglected,
and the provincial allies were as summarily requisitioned by a
legatus as were the provincial subjects. Senators or
citizens employed on a public mission abroad received from the senate a
mandate (
diploma) requiring subjects and allies
alike to supply them with means of transport and other necessaries at all
the successive stages of their journey. This in the natural course of things
led to grave hardships, and complaints frequently arose. Restrictive
enactments became necessary, and we read that Cato the Elder, when praetor
in Sardinia, diminished or removed the expenses entailed upon the people of
that island by the entertainment of the praetors officiating among them
(
Liv. 32.27). It is questionable, however,
whether Cato issued a formal edict, or whether his good example alone
operated towards the relief of the sufferers. In the Lex Antonia de
Termessensibus (B.C.
circ. 71) mention is made of a
Lex Porcia, which would seem to have regulated the liabilities of the
provincials in such matters. But we have no definite information about this
law ; its date and its provisions are alike uncertain, and it may, as
Humbert says, have related only to the people of the particular city of
Termessus. Among the various embassies which thus became grounds of hardship
to the provincials there was one which deserves especial notice. This was
called
libera legatio, being a sort of mission
from which all state employment was absent, granted as a favour sometimes to
distinguished men, lasting for several years, and carrying with it all the
previously mentioned liabilities on the part of the provincials. The
libera legatio, owing to the indefiniteness
of the privileges it conveyed, became a fearful cause of oppression. A law
was carried in B.C. 63 by Cicero (
Cic. de
Legg. 3.8, 18) restricting abuses of the
libera legatio, and limiting its duration to one
year, but the reform thus effected was short-lived, for Julius Caesar (
Cic. Att. 15.1. 1) again extended the term
of a
libera legatio to a possible five years.
During the last period of the republic the senate had frequent occasions for
communicating in despatches with their generals, or provincial governors, as
well as with allied kings and states. For the conveyance of such despatches
the authorities employed freedmen, slaves, or a certain class of couriers
called
stratores (
sternere = to saddle). A class of messengers also existed called
tabellarii. For pressing messages a general
usually employed mounted men detached from his own staff. The
publicani, as specially interested in transmitting
and receiving intelligence to and from Rome, had a special class of
tabellarii, whose services, however, were often
borrowed by the magistrates, or by the
negotiatores, speculators in corn or money, who were in constant
relations with the provincial governors and with the
publicani. The ships of the allies also were employed for the
use of magistrates engaged abroad on public business. Thus for the purposes
of transport and the conveyance of intelligence the dealings of the home
government with the provincials were regulated mainly by the principle that
the incidental labour and expenses should be borne as far as possible by the
latter, while the interests to be served were those of the government alone.
It only remained for the Principate to organise and develop the system which
had been established under the republican
régime. The immense advantages of such an organisation
as a portion of the imperial administration were sufficiently obvious.
Augustus accordingly appointed mounted couriers (
stratores or speculatores) to be employed along the principal
roads (
Suet. Aug. 49). This implies the
institution of stations (
mutationes), at which
they should relieve one another. But as this arrangement provided only for
the conveyance of intelligence,
[p. 1.584]it required to be
supplemented by a transport system for the conveyance of money or other
valuables of considerable weight. The necessity of constructing postal
stations ensued. The stations were called
mansiones, which, being intended for lodgings, as their name
indicates, were furnished not only with a supply for the immediate wants of
man and beast, but also with the accommodation suitable for travellers. The
mansiones were not so numerous along a road
as the
mutationes, or changing-stages. In
accordance with republican precedent the expenses of the transport and
postal system generally continued to fall upon the communities through whose
territories the lines of stations lay. They accordingly had to provide
conductors, guards, drivers, together with beasts of burden and
rolling-stock, on receipt of the emperor's order (
diploma), or that of the head of the postal system (a functionary
designated in Trajan's time as
ab vehiculis),
who was generally a freedman of the emperor. Such warrants for the use of
the post were issued occasionally by the consul, by the praefect of the
praetorians, or by the governor of a province, but in all cases only with
the emperor's special authority. While the document entitling to the use of
the
cursus, by virtue of being stamped with the
emperor's seal, was called
diploma (and other
names which will hereafter be referred to), the right of issuing postal
warrants was, at least until a late period, called
evectio. The expenses, moreover, of constructing stations and
stocking them with necessaries, had to be borne by the neighbouring
communities. Along the line of one day's journey there were six or eight
sets of stables, each of which had to maintain a total of forty beasts,
including horses, mules, asses, &c. The communities also were bound
to furnish and maintain the teams, and to keep the stables in repair; they
had further to secure the services of muleteers (
muliones), muledoctors (
mulomedici),
wheelwrights (
carpentarii), grooms (
hippocomi), and conductors or guards (
vehicularii). From these heavy burdens Nerva
relieved the people of Italy, and to commemorate his act a medal was struck
bearing the inscription
vehiculatione Italiae remissa (where
vehiculatio =
cursus
publicus). Trajan, however, re-authorized (
Plin. Ep. 10.121) the issue of
postal-warrants in Italy, but restricted them to cases in which he had been
personally consulted. We read (Spart.
Hadr. 7) that Hadrian
“statum cursum fiscalem instituit, ne magistratus hoc onere
gravarentur.” According to Hirschfeld, in his note to these
words,
cursus fiscalis is in Spartianus
equivalent to
cursus vehicularius, and the
emphasis lies upon the word
statum. According
to his view, therefore, the meaning of the whole sentence is that Hadrian
made the postal service throughout the empire a department of the state
administration, and appointed fixed stations, superintended by government
officials, in order to relieve the
municipal
magistrates of all responsibility for them. Despite, however, these and
other efforts in this direction, it was not until the time of Septimius
Severus (Spart.
Secer. 14) that the expenses of
the post generally were made chargeable to the imperial treasury. But even
when this had been done, the subjects still continued to suffer, nor did any
subsequent legislation materially alleviate the burden with which the
cursus pressed upon them. Differences of
opinion exist as to the exact nature of the reforms or changes attributed
respectively to Nerva, Trajan, and the others above mentioned. Humbert says
we must at least suppose, as Hudemann does, that Nerva entirely remitted,
though only to Italy, the expenses of the service, so that the salaries of
officials engaged in it, as well as the material cost, became alike
chargeable to the treasury; that Trajan contented himself with merely
checking the abuse of
evectio, while Hadrian,
besides extending the organisation of the post through the whole empire,
must apparently have imposed the charges of it upon the
fiscus; that Antoninus Pius again, like Trajan, making a step
backward, confined the contemplated reform to a mere restriction of expenses
and of the right of issuing post-warrants; that Septimius Severus completely
re-organised the
vehicularium munus, and
imposed the charges of it, in Italy and the rest of the empire alike, upon
the
fiscus alone; but that the last and radical
reform was incapable of maintaining itself, owing to the burdens it entailed
upon the treasury. Diocletian, Constantine, and their successors, all strove
to perfect the organisation of the post, and to define exactly what the
liabilities of the cities in regard to it should be, together with
determining the question who should have the
evectio, or right of granting postal permits, and under what
circumstances they might be justly granted.
In the later times of the Roman empire the post became an ever increasing
burden to the cities, and, as it injured them, in the same degree it
prepared the way for its own ruin Nevertheless a treaty ratified between
Rome and Persia in A.D. 565 (Menander,
Prot. p. 360, ed.
Bonn) assured to the natives of the frontier provinces of the two empires
the uses of the postal service to and fro between them.
Organisation of Cursus Publicus.--This portion of our subject
we shall divide into an account of the
agents and of
the
instruments-vehicles and live stock--employed in
the service. Little information as to the agents of the
cursus can be procured from the writers of the early empire.
Our chief authority respecting them is found in the inscriptions, which have
been turned to good account by Hirschfeld, Mommsen, Hudemann, and others.
The emperor retained in his own hands the supreme direction of the post. Its
importance led Augustus to place it in the hands of his own freedmen. We
find a freedman of the Flavii as responsible agent for the carriage-service
(
tabularius a vehiculis), and under Trajan
two freedmen, father and son, entitled respectively
ab
vehiculis and
a commentariis
vehiculorum, the former probably, according to Hirschfeld, a head
of the service, the latter a secretary, whose office was to minute the
proceedings of the department. When Hadrian re-organised the post, the
direction of the principal branch of it was entrusted to a knight called
praefectus
vehiculorum, who managed the service along the
great Flaminian way towards the north. This functionary is sometimes called
praefectus vehiculorum a copiis Augusti per viam
Flaminiam (
C. I. L. 6.1598), as entrusted with
the duty of providing victuals, &c., for the army along this
military road. Afterwards, probably under Septimius Severus, other prefects,
almost always of
[p. 1.585]equestrian rank, were appointed
to the charge of the important routes. These prefects were placed under the
surveillance of superiors called (Stat.
Sil. 4.9, 16-19)
curatores viarum. They were divided into
classes according to their salary, e.g.
ducenarii (i. e. those receiving a salary of 200 sestertia),
centenarii, sexagenarii. It is noticeable
that there was a special prefect in charge of the Via Flaminia (
vid. Hirschfeld,
Untersuch. p. 103),
independent of the chief prefect, whose office was in Rome. As regards the
officers of the department, we find at Rome in the 2nd and 3rd centuries
agents and secretaries (
tabellarii, or
a commentariis vehiculorum) ; while in the provinces
the magistrates of the various cities, assisted by agents of their own, had
the duty of making arrangements for the
cursus.
Warrants for the use of the post (
diplomata）
were issued either by the emperor himself, or under order from him by a
special officer. Under the early empire the right of issuing (
evectio) such warrants was granted only very
sparingly to provincial governors, who were responsible for their use of it
to the consuls. They were also responsible to the prefect of the
praetorians, at first during the emperor's absence, but afterwards more
generally. The
diploma was drafted in the
imperial cabinet by a freedman of the emperor, and there it received the
emperor's own seal and signature. This freedman was in the 2nd century named
a diplomatibus. In the 3rd century he was
attached to a branch of the
scrinium a memoria.
The emperor himself employed as messengers a special set of
tabellarii, who therefore had a preferential right
to the use of the post, and were known as
tabellarii
diplomarii. They were controlled by a
praepositus tabellariorum, and were divided into companies,
each under the orders of a freedman of the emperor, as
optio or
praepositus. The
companies were severally attached to the most important departments of the
government. From the 2nd century onwards the prefect of the praetorians had
and long retained control over the issue of postal warrants, only, however,
as acting in the emperor's name. This officer, too, issued instructions to
the provincial
judices as to the ways and means
of providing for the
cursus, as to the
regulation of
diplomata, the persons who should
travel by the
cursus, and the correction of
abuses connected with the post. The praetorian prefect also issued
diplomata to governors of provinces, to his own
surveyors (called
officiales, frumentarii, stationarii,
agentes in rebus). He too, or in default of him his deputy, or
his agents, sent out inspectors to report on the condition of the postal
system. He exercised penal jurisdiction over offences committed in the
management of the service. He and his agents, however, were themselves often
guilty of grave offences, which was probably the reason why the
magister officiorum at an early time obtained the
evectio, or right of issuing
diplomata, as well as of sending out
inspectors-general (
curiosi) from among the
employés of his own bureau. From the year 353 not only were the
agents of the praetorian prefect and his deputy (formerly called
frumentarii or
stationarii, but later
curagendarii, agentes
in rebus) deprived of the right of laying informations without
proofs, and imprisoning arbitrarily those whom they incriminated, but
further, in 357, Constantius forbade the prefect and his deputies to appoint
inspectors of the post. This right was accordingly transferred to the
magister
officiorum, and reserved to him. Henceforward
the
magister officiorum selected postal
inspectors from among the heads of the society or
schola
of agentes in rebus employed under him. Such inspectors were
entitled
curiosi cursus publici, and were
appointed annually in the order of seniority. They were also selected from
the
magisteriani. The supreme control of the post
remained nominally, however, in the hands of the praetorian prefect until
the year 395 (J. Lydus,
de Mag. 2.10, 26; 3.23, 40), when,
after the fall of the prefect Rufinus, the management of the service was
formally committed to the
magister officiorum.
The latter then acquired the function of countersigning all postal warrants
issued by the praetorian prefect. The
curiosi
received a commission (v. Cod. Theod. 1.9, 1) signed by the emperor. Though
purely civil officers, they were distinguished by military badges, e. g. the
chlamys, and the
balteum or
cingulum militare.
Inspectors on their mission (Cod. Theod. 6.29, 4) had the right of obtaining
for their use two
veredi, but not, as before
the reign of Constantine,
redae or other vehicles.
The overseers of the stages (
mutationes) or
lodging-places (
mansiones) were generally
called
mancipes, but often, also,
procuratores cursus
publici, or
praepositi, their function being called
mancipatus cursus publici, or
cura
mancipatus. They each in their respective localities presided
over the post (
cursui praeesse), and over the
group of employés engaged at their station (
familiae praeesse). The
familia
comprised artificers (
artifices), such as
carpentarii, &c. They, as well as
their
praepositus, received a salary from the
treasury, paid in kind (
annona), together with
clothing and lodging. They were not allowed to demand from travellers any
recompense for their services. The
muliones and
hippocomi were generally slaves. Seneca
(
de morte Claudii) mentions conductors
called
perpetuarii, so called because they followed
with a traveller to his destination to see that the postilions, who might,
if unwatched, try to break away, should bring back (
reducere) the horses in safety to the stations whence they
had started. The mass of inferior servants employed at a station were
referred to as
apparitores mancipatus,
opifices, or
munifices. After
Diocletian
mancipes were appointed, at first by
the emperor, later by the governor of the province. Frequent changes were
made in this matter by the emperors, who were impressed with the
desirableness of choosing, capable and honest men as
mancipes, on whom the effectiveness of the system so largely
depended. As to their degrees of rank--for there were several--nothing
certain can be made out. They usually held office for five years, on the
expiration of which they were rewarded for faithful service with the title
of
perfectissimus or
perfectissimatus. They also received more substantial
rewards, as, for example, exemption from certain municipal burdens.
The official couriers entitled to avail themselves of the imperial post
(
veredarii) were originally the
tabellarii diplomatici; the emperor's equerries
(
stratores); the officers of the guard,
whose duty it was to obtain and convey intelligence (
speculatores) ; the force called
frumentarii,
[p. 1.586]abolished after Diocletian, and replaced by the
sagones or
sazones, or
by knights called
singulares equites, taken
from the legionary cavalry; and, under Constantine, by the
agentes in rebus, whom Greek writers called
φρουμεντάριοι, doubtless as having succeeded to
the functions of the
frumentarii. These
privileged travellers were all known as
veredarii, from the name of the horses used by them,
vered. The name
veredarii, however, was also improperly applied to travellers
holding a
diploma, who were more correctly
designated as
commeantes or
diplomarii. A person who used the vehicles of the post could take
with him a
socius (Cod. Theod. 8.5, 4, h. tit.)
to look after his baggage or other valuables. Moreover, guards (
custodes or
prosecutores) to
the number of two or three were attached to each vehicle. The service was
superintended at each station by the
manceps,
in regard to certain routes by the
praefecti
vehiculorum, in the provinces or regions by the
praepositi regionibus or
regionarii,
and in regard to the
dioeceses by the
curiosi. The
parochi,
who had been in republican times charged to supply Roman magistrates when
travelling with victuals, forage, mattresses, and lodgings, were perhaps
still employed in the case of soldiers, who had the right of demanding
quarters (
metatum) in virtue of a document
called
tractoriae (sc.
litterae), furnished under exceptional circumstances. The
curia or ward in which they found
themselves was bound to provide travellers thus privileged with lodgings,
wood, oil, and salt, all which are included under the general term
salgămum=sustenance.
So much for the
agents of the service. We next
proceed to describe in detail the
instruments. The
road system formed the basis of the
cursus
publicus, but the post was not established on all the public
roads, but only on such as led to the most important cities or ports. In the
case of the latter the
cursus was extended over
sea by the
naves publicae, which the naval
boards (
navicularii) placed at the service of
imperial messages or transports. As regards this naval post we have scarcely
any information, and must accordingly deal here with the land post. As has
been already stated, Augustus first had stations built for the service of
the post as to despatches and transports. These, as has been explained, were
called by the general name of
stationes, under
which came two classes, viz.
mutationes
(changing-stages) and
mansiones
(lodging-stages), which must be carefully distinguished. The
mansiones lay along the postal routes at distances
of an average day's journey apart. In the
mansiones changes were effected of the postilions, the vehicles,
the draught-animals, &c., whereas in the
mutationes changes of the teams alone took place. In populous
districts the
mutationes were generally in or
about five Roman miles asunder, and in poorly inhabited regions the interval
rose to eight or nine Roman miles. Between two
mansiones were often as many as six or eight
mutationes. Long journeys were estimated by the number of
mansiones they included, particular
distances being referred to as
prima mansio,
&c., just as Xenophon reckoned by
σταφμοί (or rather
σταφμά). The
mutationes were more numerous, and
therefore nearer to each other in older than in later times.
Mansiones were established as far as possible in
places of note, as cities, towns, and, in default of these, in villages.
They were furnished with all that might be necessary for travellers. If we
consider the comparative importance of these two classes of
stationes, we may conclude that the
mansiones were erected first, the
mutationes having been subsequently added to relieve the long
intervals between the former. The
mansiones
must have been of considerable size, for each had attached to it
coach-horses, and therefore stables, granaries (
horrea) for fodder (
căpītum) as well as victuals for travellers
(
species annonariae or
cellarienses). The
mutationes, on the
other hand, sometimes had only sheds with stalls for the post-horses. Every
mansio had at least forty horses, or more,
in its
stabula, and also beasts of other kinds.
A fully equipped
mansio was called
mansio instructa or
parata. To arrive at a
mansio was
termed
mansionem applicare. The emperors
established public palaces (
palatia or
praetoria) for their own sole use at first (Vopisc.
Aurelian, 35; Cod. Theod. 7.10, 1 and 2), though in later
times they were granted for the use of provincial governors while engaged in
their tour (
transitus) of a province. The
mutationes--differing, as has been said,
from the
mansiones in their greater frequency
and smaller dimensions--contained about twenty horses, with asses and other
beasts; their regulations were in general similar to those of the
mansiones. Like the latter, they had connected with
them
hippocomi, horrea, &c., and were
each managed by a
manceps. Inns (
tabernae or
stabula）
were often erected beside them to accommodate travellers of inferior
condition. The innkeeper (
stabularius) had
usually a signboard over the entrance to his hostel; such signboards
sometimes bore the painting of an elephant, sometimes of a cock, &c.
Hadrian and other emperors caused the erection of a superior class of
tabernae at certain points along routes,
where
mansiones were subsequently constructed.
The postal service included the
cursus velox or
celer, as one of its two great divisions,
the other division being the
cursus clabularis.
The expression
cursus vehicularis need not be
opposed to
cursus velox, for the two branches
of the service are sometimes conjointly alluded to under the title
cursus vehicularis or
res
vehicularia, although the latter, as its name implies, was at first
used to designate that branch in which vehicles were employed. The animals
employed in the postal service generally were of different kinds. They are
generally described as
animalia publica. This
name included horses, mules, asses, oxen, camels, which are also summed up
sometimes as
jumenta publica. The horses of a
mansio were called
equi
publici or
cursuales, and by Greek
writers
δημόσιοι ἵπποι. They were not
allowed to be used in the service of private individuals. Horses
requisitioned outside the
mansiones at the
expense of the local exchequer were not classed as
animalia publica. They were generally employed for routes
running transversely to the great lines of road, because, the posts being
established regularly only on the latter, the transverse or lateral routes
had, when occasion for postal service along them arose, to depend upon
extraordinary requisitions. To meet these irregular requirements some cities
established stables of horses called
agminales
equi, which were liable to be employed in the
[p. 1.587]ordinary
cursus, as well as for
the use of the emperor and his escort. The
agminales
equi were, according to Humbert and Hudemann, distinct from the
paraveredi, though some writers have confounded
them. The
agminales equi had frequently to
convey the baggage of troops on the march (whence the name
agminales). There were also
agminales muli. The
veredi, used
in the
cursus velox, were generally procured
from Spain. They were mounted by
veredarii, or
public couriers, who carried their despatches in saddle-bags placed behind
them (
averta). Each
veredarius, if his baggage was too heavy for a single horse,
was entitled to use a second horse, called
parhippus or
avertarius. This second
horse was mounted by a postilion from the station, wearing a
sagum, who was charged to bring both horses back to
the point of departure. The horses were furnished with a cloth (
stragula vestis), or with a pad (
ephippium). The saddle (
sella
equestris) was in use under Theodosian, but its weight was restricted,
and it had to be provided, if used, by the
veredarius himself. There was a regulation (Cod. Theod. 8.5, 35,
40; Cod.
Just. 12.50,
51,
8) limiting the number of horses
allowed to leave a
mansio in one (lay.
Precautions were also taken to save the horses from being spoiled by being
yoked to over-weighted vehicles, and from being taken beyond the nearest
changing-stage (
superducere). Against such abuses it
was the duty of the
mancipes or
stationarius to provide and to see that none of the
animals were driven off the highway or stolen.
The
cursus celer employed not only
veredi or riding-horses, but also vehicles of
several sorts,
redae, carpenta, birotae, and
carr. The
reda was
originally two-wheeled, but subsequently had four wheels. That used for the
post was called
reda fiscalis or
consualis. To it were yoked horses varying in number
from two to ten, according to circumstances.
Redae were
sometimes large enough to contain several travellers with their luggage.
Hudemann supposes that they were uncovered in summer, but roofed over in
winter. This vehicle, owing to its capacity (cf. “dum tota domus reda
componitur una,”
Juv. 3.10), was very much used. The
carpentum, like the
reda, had at first two, and afterwards four, wheels. Like the
carpentum, too, it was, at least at one
time, suited for large and heavy burdens; though at a later period a species
of
carpentum came into fashion, which was of
light material, elegantly shaped, and which became a favourite with high
functionaries, such as provincial governors. The
carrus was lighter than the former two, but heavier than the
birota. Like the preceding vehicles, it
also had at first two wheels, but later four. The
birota was, as its name shows, a two-wheeled carriage. It was
drawn by two horses or three mules, and generally used by those who had but
little luggage, and were desirous of a rapid journey. The
cisium was a species of
birota.
Besides the above, which were ordinarily used in the
cursus celer, elegant four-wheeled carriages, called
carrucae, were sometimes employed by the emperors.
The
carruca was generally drawn by four mules.
We now turn from the
cursus velox to the
cursus clabularis, or heavy transport
service. This was chiefly intended for the conveyance of such commodities as
food and baggage, especially that of soldiers. The large vehicles (
clabulae) employed in this branch of the
cursus could not, unless by special favour, be used
by any persons save diseased or discharged soldiers returning home, or by
stragglers rejoining the main body. The
clabulae had
four wheels, were uncovered, built very strongly, and drawn by mules or
oxen, seldom by horses. Their maximum burden was fifteen hundred Roman
pounds. This gives us a means of comparing them with the
redae used in the
cursus celer, whose
maximum burden was one thousand pounds. The name
clabula is said to be=
clavula, a
diminutive of
clava, being applied to the whole
vehicle on account of the wooden rails which protected its sides.
Clabulae drawn by two oxen at first, but later all other
clabulae, were also called
angariae, a name derived from the Graeco-Persian
ἄγγαρος, whence the verb
angariare=
ἀγγαρεύειν, denoting
the obligation imposed on the provincials to support this branch of the
service, but extended to signify the obligation to provide for the
cursus in general. This verb is used even of ships
pressed into the postal service.
Angarialis
copia or
angaria was used to express
the right of employing the
clabularis cursus.
No one was allowed the use in one day of more than two
angariae. We have already stated that private persons could
only employ them by special favour. Still, a traveller who possessed the
copia angarialis had the right of taking
with him a
socius (Cod. Theod. 8.5, 4,
de Cursu Pub.) to insure his safety. The words
cursus angarialis were often applied to the
cursus clabularis (or
tardus) as opposed to the
cursus
velox (or
celer).
Parangariae were cars employed on extraordinary occasions for
the
cursus clabularis along the transverse
routes (
rid. supra). These were, therefore, to the
cursus clabularis what the
paraveredi were to the
cursus
velox. They were used mostly for carrying men, forage, arms,
&c., for the army. Like the
paraveredi, the
parangariae became a cause of gross abuses. The
persons on whom the expenses of this service fell looked upon it not only as
a
munus extraordinarium, but further as
sordidum. It was, however, a service
provision for which was rigorously exacted from the magistrates of the
different townships through which the cross roads extended.
Up to this point, as the reader will probably observe, nothing definite has
been stated of the manner in which the working expenses of the post were
borne. We have seen by turns the expenses falling upon the
fiscus, and again upon the provincials or other
subjects. The fact is that this question of the apportioning of expenses
causes the modern inquirer some difficulties which admit of no dogmatic
solution, and we cannot expect to do more than present that explanation of
them which on the whole seems most probably right. Notwithstanding the
reforms of Hadrian and Septimius Severus, certain expenses appear to have
always rested upon the provincials, owing to the emptiness of the exchequer
during the later periods of the empire. Such were those of constructing,
repairing, and maintaining the
stationes.
Service, too, along the lateral routes, by
parangariae, or
paraveredi, continued, always
and as a matter of
[p. 1.588]course, a burden upon the
communities. Thus the
decuriones of each town
were always responsible for the supply of agents and instruments requisite
for the post, and charged the expenses thereby incurred to the account of
the
possessores, or owners of real property, in
their respective districts. The question then arises, in what sense the
cursus can have been really
fiscalis, as it was denominated. Humbert's
explanation (which we follow) is this: the precise relation established or
intended by Septimius Severus between the
fiscus and the
cursus publicus no
doubt failed to maintain itself in later times. But the
fiscus (as the public treasury was now called) had for one of
its principal resources the
tributum ex censu,
a great portion of which was exacted in kind. This was so, even in Italy,
after the reign of Diocletian. Hence the service of the post diverting to
itself, as it did, from the
fiscus a portion of
the
tributum, might be correctly described as
fiscalis. The commodities which supplied
the needs of the
cursus would otherwise have
found their way to the
fiscus. For example, the
grain which would have been conveyed to Rome was detained in the
horrea of the
stationes; so that to all intents the postal service was a drain
upon, and therefore supported by, the imperial treasury, as far as material
expenses went. We now turn to the consideration of the agents employed in
the
cursus. The enactment of Septimius Severus
involving not only material outlay, but also the payment of a vast number of
officials, was too onerous to the
fiscus to
admit of its being permanent in the form which that emperor designed.
Further, the difficulty of discovering capable and honest men to fill
subordinate though important positions (e.g.
mancipes) in the postal service of far off provinces was too
great for the home administration, so that the selection and appointment of
such officials unavoidably devolved upon the local authorities abroad.
Accordingly it continued from the first, with scarcely an interval, to rest
with the
decuriones and the municipal
magistrates generally. It was one of the socalled voluntary services
expected or demanded of them, of extreme urgency indeed, but one for which
the state was never able to render an adequate recompense. In respect of the
personal service, as well as of the materials, required for the
cursus, the same principle of administration is
throughout all periods observable; namely, that the subjects of the empire
should conform unhesitatingly to imperial demands. Among the duties thus
devolved upon the
decuriones were the
following: to provide the attendants needed for the safe conveyance of
commodities due by the provincials in payment of the
tributum ex censu, a duty which was termed
prosecutio or
portatorium onus; to
see that the
stationes were kept in good order
and repair (
vehicularis sollicitudo, or
publici cursus exhibitio, or
angariarum praebitio); and also to arrange for the
suitable entertainment of public envoys. While the personal service needful
for this was yielded by the
decuriones, the
pecuniary charges were borne by the
possessores
of each community, even though they might not be citizens (
municipes) or inhabitants (
incolae) of the place. The
possessores had to supply (Dig.
de mun. L. 4)
agminales equi vel mulae, et angariae atque
veredi. On the whole it appears that, while the regulations of
Septimius Severus were not formally abrogated, they continued to be from the
outset little more than a dead letter, at least in the remoter parts of the
empire, never having afforded the subjects substantial relief from the
burdens entailed by the
cursus publicus.
As to
evectio, or the right of issuing postal
permits (
diplomata), something has been already
said. The tendency was to restrict it to as few persons as possible. Each of
the provincial governors under Trajan (
Plin. Ep.
10.31,
59,
60) could issue arbitrarily a limited number
of permits, but only to persons who used the post in the public service, and
each governor was responsible to the emperor for the manner in which he had
exercised this right. Such permits became null and void after a preappointed
date, or by the death of the emperor whose seal and signature they bore (cf.
Tac. Hist. 2.54 and 65). Under
Diocletian the vicars of
dioeceses, the
magistri militum, the
duces and
comites rei militaris,
possessed the
evectio. Under Constantine,
however, it was reserved to the prefect of the praetorians and the
magister officiorum; the latter, as has been said,
having ultimately, in the year 395, succeeded to the supreme control of
diplomata.
Although in principle the holder of
evectio was
bound to exercise it only in the interests of the state, still as these
interests were not easily or precisely definable, numerous cases occurred in
which the principle was violated. Emperors often gave
diplomata to those in whose mission they took a merely
personal interest, and similar laxity in the exercise of
evectio by subordinate officials was naturally to be
expected.
The warrant itself (for military
diplomata, vide
article
DIPLOMA), in early
times called
diploma, but afterwards by other
names, consisted of folded parchment, and, as above mentioned, bore the
emperor's seal and signature. According to Suetonius (
Suet. Aug. 49), the
diplomata of Augustus bore the impression of a sphinx. Hence
the word
sigillum is sometimes used for
diploma. Postal warrants were sometimes
called
synthemata. The words
literae evectionis, or simply
literae, sometimes signified a permit for travelling by the
cursus celer. After the reign of
Constantine
evectio came to be used improperly
as equivalent to
diploma, or
literae
evectionis. Tractoriae (sc.
literae), or even
literae alone,
meant that species of
diploma which entitled
its bearer not only to use the
cursus publicus,
but also to be supplied with victuals and forage at the expense of the
mansiones. The word
combina signified the parchment form folded and prepared for being
filled up as a postal warrant, but later on was used to mean
diploma.
The emperor from time to time formulated ordinances (
constitutiones) regulating the postal service. These he
addressed to the praefect of the praetorians, to the
magister officiorum, to the vicars of
dioeceses, to provincial governors, &c., with orders to
make them publicly known, All the officers of the post, so far as they
exercised authority over it, were the emperor's delegates; the series of
subordinated authorities, extending from him downwards, closed with the
mancipes, or
praepositi. The subordinate
[p. 1.589]officials
were responsible to their superiors, and all without exception to the
emperor.
We may fitly close this article by quoting the remark with which Hirschfeld
prefaces his account of
die Reichspost: “The imperial
Roman post presents, in every respect, a contrast to the postal system
of our times: introduced by Augustus exclusively for political objects,
despite all the particular reforms which followed, it always maintained
this one-sided character; it never was, like the modern post, a source
of benefit, but always a painful burden, to the subjects of the
empire.” (For fuller information respecting Roman posting, see the
excellent article by Humbert, in Daremberg and Saglio, which has been mainly
followed here; also Hirschfeld,
Untersuchungen auf dem Gebiete der
röm. Verwaltungsgeschichte, 1.98 ff.; and Hudemann,
Geschichte des römischen Postwesens während der
Kaiserzeit.
[
J.I.B]
